"Illusion and Deception": KCAL 9's Report on the Defense Closing in the Grim Sleeper Trial, 2016

Name: "Illusion and Deception": KCAL 9's Report on the Defense Closing in the Grim Sleeper Trial, 2016
Uploaded: 2016-05-03T00:00:00Z
Duration: 2 min 44 s
Description: A KCAL 9 live report from May 3, 2016, with excerpts of defense attorney Seymour Amster's closing argument in the Grim Sleeper trial.

A KCAL 9 live report from May 3, 2016, with excerpts of defense attorney Seymour Amster's closing argument in the Grim Sleeper trial.

Subject: Lonnie Franklin
Recorded: about May 3, 2016
Runtime: 2:44

Content warning: Refers to the murders of 10 women and the attempted murder of an 11th; no graphic detail.

The Interview

This is not an interview with Lonnie Franklin Jr., who is not heard in it. It is a 2:44 live report broadcast by KCAL 9 in Los Angeles on May 3, 2016, the second day of closing arguments in Franklin's murder trial. Reporter Dave Lopez speaks from outside the courthouse during the jury's lunch break, and the report includes three courtroom excerpts of the closing argument by defense attorney Seymour Amster.

Historical Context

Between 1985 and 2007 nine women and a 15-year-old girl were murdered in South Los Angeles. The unknown killer was called the "Grim Sleeper" because of an apparent long gap between the killings of the 1980s and those of the 2000s. Franklin, a former city sanitation worker and LAPD garage mechanic, was arrested on July 7, 2010, after a familial DNA search. His trial opened on February 16, 2016, before Judge Kathleen Kennedy in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Circumstances

The prosecution, led by Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman, gave its closing argument on May 2, 2016, and Amster began the defense closing the same day. According to Lopez, the defense had argued for about 45 minutes on May 2 and all morning on May 3, and would go into a fourth hour that afternoon. The prosecution's rebuttal was still to come before the jury received the case.

What the Recording Covers

Lopez reports that Amster told the jury the case against Franklin rested on "nothing but illusion and deception" and that the DNA evidence was faulty. In court, Amster asks why the jury could not have evidence "that is not subject to question whatsoever," and challenges the claim that the DNA profile could belong only to Franklin and not to a relative, saying the jury had never been given a statistic for related individuals. Lopez summarizes the prosecution's case: DNA evidence, ballistic evidence and the account of the surviving eyewitness. Amster then tells the jury that it is the defense's position that "there's a nephew or youngster" who committed each of the murders, and that this is a reasonable interpretation under the circumstantial evidence instruction. Lopez notes that Amster never named the nephew, or even said whose nephew he meant, and that he had raised the idea two or three times during the trial.

What Makes the Recording Significant

It records, on camera, the defense's argument that someone other than Franklin committed the murders, two days before the jury rejected it and convicted him on all counts.

Archival Importance

It documents the last stage of the guilt phase, between Franklin's 2010 LAPD interrogation and his death sentence on August 10, 2016.

Important Caveats

Franklin is not heard. The defense's "nephew" theory named no one in court, and the page must not name, suggest or identify any relative of Franklin as a suspect; the jury convicted Franklin on all counts on May 5, 2016. The "eyewitness who survived the attack" is not named in the report. Whether "Don't believe it." is Amster's own words in court or the reporter's paraphrase is uncertain. The YouTube description's "second day" is broadly right: the defense began on May 2 and continued through May 3. The anchor is identified only as "Juan" in the broadcast caption track; do not supply a surname.

Anchor: The fate of an accused serial killer could soon be in the hands of a jury. Lonnie Franklin Jr. is accused of being the Grim Sleeper. He's on trial for the murders of 10 women over more than two decades. Closing arguments continue today, and KCAL 9's Dave Lopez is live in downtown LA with those latest developments. Dave?

Dave Lopez: Well, it is lunchtime now for the jury. They have gone to lunch, will be back about 1:45, and they are still listening to the defense go on and on and on about how Lonnie Franklin did not commit this murder. About 45 minutes yesterday, all morning long, so when they resume in the afternoon, the defense will go into its fourth hour of trying to convince the jury that they have the wrong man.

Seymour Amster: Why can't we just have evidence in this case that is not subject to question whatsoever?

Dave Lopez: Seymour Amster, the defense attorney for accused serial killer Lonnie Franklin Jr., continued to hammer on what he began to tell the jury yesterday: that this case against Franklin is based on nothing but illusion and deception, and the DNA, he said, is faulty.

Seymour Amster: Don't believe it.

Seymour Amster: So how do you determine that all the DNA found on this common profile [unclear: "could only be" / "to only be"] Lonnie Franklin, and not anybody else who's related to him, when you have never been given a single statistic based upon related individuals?

Dave Lopez: Franklin is accused of killing 10 women and attempting to kill an 11th one, a killing spree that began more than 31 years ago. The prosecution contends it is DNA evidence, ballistics evidence, and the account of the eyewitness who survived the attack that links Franklin to all of these crimes, and that he acted alone. But today, Amster said this.

Seymour Amster: It is our position that there's a nephew or youngster who [unclear: "was" / "is"] involved, that did each and every murder, and that there is not sufficient evidence to show Lonnie Franklin did that. And this is a reasonable interpretation under the circumstantial evidence instruction.

Dave Lopez: During this final argument, not once did Amster name that nephew by name. He just didn't give a name to it, didn't attach it to it. Didn't even say if it was Lonnie Franklin's nephew, just saying that a nephew is involved. Now, that's the second or third time that he has made reference to it during this trial, but he's really hammered it at this closing argument. Now, once he's done, the prosecutor gets a second crack at it, her rebuttal, if you will, and then the jury will get the case. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not. Reporting live from outside the courthouse, I'm Dave Lopez. Back to you in the studio. ---